This semester I played around with Evernote, Evernote Web Clipper and Zotero, all of which are online applications that helped me organize my research and thinking. Prior to this course, I had used Evernote to organize my high school biology honors project notes, because I was doing a semester-long research project, but that was the only notebook in my online library at the beginning of this term. This semester, I added notes that have summaries and reflections of books that we have read, and I was able to access our shared notebook resources. Overall, I find Evernote to be a hit or miss. If I am doing primarily website-based research (like my biology honors project), I find that Evertnote's easy webclipper allows me to pop websites and images right into my notes. And Evernote has some noteworthy features, like the 'tags' option, but I'm not ready to handle that kind of organizational power. Because I have grown up using Google Docs to organize my work, I don't think I will be making a full switch to Evernote anytime soon.
I think my nonchalance about not using Evernote comes from my current lack of the need to connect things on a article-to-article basis. Although I'm sure this will change in the future (you might find me one day screaming from a rooftop, "DR. FOGLEMAN WAS RIGHTT"), right now I am still just trying to put main ideas together and connect class topics. Google Docs allows me to pull up a year, look at all the classes I took that year, then in each of those class folders I have folders for projects, each filled with documents labelled things like notes, outline, or final product, and almost all my final projects have in-document teacher-added comments (my middle and high schools were pretty Google Docs savvy). As of right now, this organization is working really well for me, because it allows me to look back at the main topics I studied and read what I wrote as a conclusion. And sometimes, when I am in need of an academic mood-booster, I pull up my fifth grade English coursework and giggle because I used the wrong "theiy're."
Zotero on the other hand is a whole other beast. I am still struggling to get the web-version of Zotero and the stand-alone desktop application to sync (because why would an application be perfect on downloading?), but so far I really like it. I want to look more into sorting my citations, because I know it is probably easy and doable, I just haven't found the time yet. Zotero also seems to bridge the gap between Google Docs and Evernote; if I'm feeling organized enough, I can figure out how to match my Google Docs folders with Zotero folders and have easy access to resources when I need them in the future.
Two strategies that helped me deepen my learning this semester were mind mapping and reflections. When I think about why I have been using these strategies, there are two roots of inspiration I keep coming back to. Firstly, as a junior in high school I took an amazing creative writing course. (You bet I just looked at my Google Docs folders.) Over the semester my classmates and I wrote one, well-edited short story, and in doing so learned about the process for good writing. One thing that I took away from this course is that sometimes you have to throw away paragraphs, pages, or maybe even entire chapters of your writing, even if it's the most perfect paragraph, page or chapter you have ever written, for the good of the story. In learning this (the hard way, which seems to be the only way here), I became better at editing, which meant I could type fearlessly for a couple pages until I found what it was that I wanted to say, and then delete the nonsense. This is a skill that I am still working on and will most likely always be working on, but it has allowed me to better myself as a writer. The second root of inspiration comes from Rizga's Mission High. In one chapter she discusses the importance of writing in school as a method for developing ideas, synthesizing, and bettering communication. That was when I realized that if I wanted to start really understanding material, especially in my non-science classes, reflections would be a great way to do that. Google Docs gives me a platform to do this, but Evernote would work just as well.
After reflecting on my past learning experiences in my Education Autobiographies, I know that I am a natural deep learner. I mean, I am so excited to take this final; if that is not a clear indication of a deep learner, I don't know what is. But I have taken away an appreciation for my education by reflecting on it, and I know that I can appreciate more things in the future by writing about them as well.
I think my nonchalance about not using Evernote comes from my current lack of the need to connect things on a article-to-article basis. Although I'm sure this will change in the future (you might find me one day screaming from a rooftop, "DR. FOGLEMAN WAS RIGHTT"), right now I am still just trying to put main ideas together and connect class topics. Google Docs allows me to pull up a year, look at all the classes I took that year, then in each of those class folders I have folders for projects, each filled with documents labelled things like notes, outline, or final product, and almost all my final projects have in-document teacher-added comments (my middle and high schools were pretty Google Docs savvy). As of right now, this organization is working really well for me, because it allows me to look back at the main topics I studied and read what I wrote as a conclusion. And sometimes, when I am in need of an academic mood-booster, I pull up my fifth grade English coursework and giggle because I used the wrong "theiy're."
Zotero on the other hand is a whole other beast. I am still struggling to get the web-version of Zotero and the stand-alone desktop application to sync (because why would an application be perfect on downloading?), but so far I really like it. I want to look more into sorting my citations, because I know it is probably easy and doable, I just haven't found the time yet. Zotero also seems to bridge the gap between Google Docs and Evernote; if I'm feeling organized enough, I can figure out how to match my Google Docs folders with Zotero folders and have easy access to resources when I need them in the future.
Two strategies that helped me deepen my learning this semester were mind mapping and reflections. When I think about why I have been using these strategies, there are two roots of inspiration I keep coming back to. Firstly, as a junior in high school I took an amazing creative writing course. (You bet I just looked at my Google Docs folders.) Over the semester my classmates and I wrote one, well-edited short story, and in doing so learned about the process for good writing. One thing that I took away from this course is that sometimes you have to throw away paragraphs, pages, or maybe even entire chapters of your writing, even if it's the most perfect paragraph, page or chapter you have ever written, for the good of the story. In learning this (the hard way, which seems to be the only way here), I became better at editing, which meant I could type fearlessly for a couple pages until I found what it was that I wanted to say, and then delete the nonsense. This is a skill that I am still working on and will most likely always be working on, but it has allowed me to better myself as a writer. The second root of inspiration comes from Rizga's Mission High. In one chapter she discusses the importance of writing in school as a method for developing ideas, synthesizing, and bettering communication. That was when I realized that if I wanted to start really understanding material, especially in my non-science classes, reflections would be a great way to do that. Google Docs gives me a platform to do this, but Evernote would work just as well.
After reflecting on my past learning experiences in my Education Autobiographies, I know that I am a natural deep learner. I mean, I am so excited to take this final; if that is not a clear indication of a deep learner, I don't know what is. But I have taken away an appreciation for my education by reflecting on it, and I know that I can appreciate more things in the future by writing about them as well.